


Falling Off the Wheel

by empty_battlefield



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Agoraphobia, Alternate Universe - Children, Alternate Universe - No Sburb Session, Children, Christmas Party, Gift Fic, House Party, Isolation, Loneliness, Multi, POV Dirk Strider, Roxy Is a Good Bro, Roxy Lalonde/Dirk Strider Moirallegiance, Secret Santa, Sober Roxy Lalonde, hsss2018
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-04
Updated: 2019-01-04
Packaged: 2019-10-04 10:24:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,061
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17302907
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/empty_battlefield/pseuds/empty_battlefield
Summary: Dirk Strider is undoubtedly a shut-in, secluding himself from life outside of his apartment. His life as a twenty seven year old stands in vast contrast to those of Roxy and Jake, each married with their own children. Nevertheless, he welcomes them over as they celebrate Christmas with him at his place. Things don't go as planned--but that's what family is, after all.





	Falling Off the Wheel

**Author's Note:**

> This is a pinch fic that was written for Homestuck Secret Santa 2018! This one is for @b4us on tumblr. even though this fic came about very quickly, I hope it's still good, and that the theme still comes across. Enjoy!

The sound of a ringtone awoke Dirk from sleep. 

The sharp noise sent his heart racing, but eventually once his hearing decided to check back in, he localized the sound to somewhere inside his covers. After kicking them around for a little bit, he eventually found his phone.

His heart dropped further into his stomach at the sight of the text message that he read through half-lidded eyes. It was from Jake English.

\-- hey dude! merry christmas :B just wanted to let you know that Roxy and I’ll be on our way over in about a half hour or so to celebrate and all. is that okay for you? --

_Fuck._ Upon closer examination of his phone, he realized that he’d gotten a couple of similar text messages from her too. He dug his arms out from under the sheets of his bed to answer Jake.

\-- Of course. That’s fine. --

_The one day you have company,_ Dirk thought to himself, _and you’re already blowing it._ He quickly located his glasses among all the crap on the nightstand, and made his way to the bathroom down the hall of his one-bedroom apartment. 

The clock beside the sink read 3:45 PM. 

_Merry Christmas morning,_ Dirk muttered quietly to himself. He’d woken up late, even on his own standards--which featured a Circadian rhythm so far out of wack that he regularly went to bed at 5 AM every morning and woke up the next day at 2PM. He operated his own freelance technology repair business from home, and rarely left the house otherwise, save to fetch groceries or something. Able to fully work from home, and thanks to a fully functioning membership to Amazon prime, he didn’t leave his apartment much. 

His phone gave another ping. He went to answer it. It was Jake again. 

\-- hey, I don’t mean to bother you last minute, but Jane and Callie are both at the office, and my babysitter cancelled on me last minute. Is it alright if we bring Jade and Rose with us? --

A sick feeling turned over in Dirk’s stomach. He was sort of apprehensive about the idea of having Jake _or_ Roxy’s kid around the apartment. Along with not really being a fan of public places, he also wasn’t really big on germs, or kids. And kids are natural reservoir for germs, so they go hand in hand supposedly. 

\--Sure, not a problem. --

There wasn’t a way to say no, really—if he did, then Jake and his sister may have instead decided not to come over altogether. And as much as Dirk liked his alone time, even he could admit that not seeing other human beings for long stretches of time could do a number on a person.

Jake responded right away.  
\-- thanks so much. --  
\-- can’t wait to finally see you again, man. --

After liking his message, Dirk looked at his own face in the mirror. He had a rather sickly looking appearance on the whole, which he proceeded to clean up in a hurry. He ran a quick comb through his unruly hair, brushed his teeth and threw on the only pair of dress clothes he owned—dark green slacks, a tan blouse, and a black tie that Dirk most often forwent—out of the many technical skills that he possessed, tying a tie unfortunately wasn’t one of them. 

_Jake should’ve gotten me one of those clip on ones,_ Dirk thought to himself. Jake had bought for him the other two parts of the dress up outfit too. He made a futile attempt at the Windsor knot that Jake must have taught him at some point. But the knowledge had since escaped him. 

Dirk was sure he had almost gotten it when a sharp knock abruptly broke his focus. He watched his startled self jump slightly in the mirror. He then went to answer the door. 

Jake was smiling broadly on the other end when he opened it. He had a bag full of gifts in one hand and a small child in the other. “Merry Christmas!” he exclaimed excitedly as he lowered Jade to the floor and pulled Dirk into a tight hug. 

“Jade, say Merry Christmas to Mr. Strider,” Jake encouraged.

“Merry Christmas!” Jade repeated enthusiastically. 

“Hi, Jade,” Dirk said quietly. 

“Good to see you, man,” Jake said, laying a hand on his shoulder, which was really his upper arm, since Dirk towered over Jake by a considerable amount. “How are you doing?” 

“I’m very well, thank you,” Dirk replied. “And you?”

“Hanging in there,” he said with a dry laugh. “Do you want me to tie that for you?”

Dirk looked at him confused my for a moment, then looked down at his chest where Jake was pointing. The knot that Dirk thought he’d almost gotten had completely fallen out. _Fuck_. “Yeah, please do before my sister gets here,” Dirk said. 

Jakes hands were already on their way to his neck. “Roxy’s not here yet?” He asked rather anxiously.

“No. She’s on her way still I guess,” he replied. 

“Alright. Did you run out of deodorant again? I don’t smell it on you.”

“Oh,” Dirk replied mentally smacking himself for not remembering to put on _freaking deodorant._ “I forgot it, I guess. But I do have it.”

“Good. Let’s go into the bathroom,” he said, taking off his backpack, unzipping it, and pulling out a toy truck he must have gotten Jade as a Christmas gift earlier that morning. “Here, sweetie, stay here and play. Daddy’ll be back in a minute.”

He handed the truck to his daughter, who took to it immediately--milling it over Dirk’s couch cushions as if they were mountains or something. 

In the bathroom, Jake quickly tied Dirk’s tie and brushed some dry shampoo through his hair to hide the grease, just before the second knock rapped on the door. 

“Sorry for not coming prepared,” Dirk muttered to Jake, looking at himself in the mirror and wondering how he didn’t think of dry shampoo before this moment. 

“No dude, you’re completely fine,” Jake replied as he gave a few final finger-runs through Dirk’s hair. “Now go answer the door.”

Sure enough, Roxy was on the other side, gift bag in one hand and a child’s palm in the other. As always, Dirk kissed her on the cheek as he let her in. Cheerfully, the two exchanged a Merry Christmas. Roxy also encouraged her daughter Rose to say hi, who reluctantly did so. From what Dirk knew of her, Rose wasn’t the type to talk much anyway.

Before they arrived, Dirk pictured the two of as being young children—but in reality, Jade was six and Rose was eleven. _So they’re growing out of their RSV carrying phase,_ Dirk thought to himself. It saddened him though, to think that so much time had actually gone by. It seemed like just a few years ago that Jake had his baby. Six was certainly more than a few. 

Rose had a cell phone and ear buds to occupy herself, and she reluctantly joined Jade at the kitchen table across the room as the adults had claimed the couch.

“I’d prefer you open my gift now, so you can put it in the refrigerator if you need to,” Roxy said, smiling. She hadn’t wrapped it, just put it in a shopping bag. Judging from the Crocker Corp. logo, Dirk already knew what it was before he’d removed the bag

“Peach Pasties,” Dirk said. His hypersensitive nose caught the smell before even needing to open the box. 

“I knew they’re your favorite--that’s why I made sure Janey held at least one box for you when we closed today,” she said proudly. “She and Cal held you two--figured you could stock up before the new year.”

“Keep going,” Jake said with a grin. It wasn’t clear if he knew what Rox had got him, but he certainly seemed to have been in on it.

Dirk was starting to get red in the face from all the attention. He wasn’t used to having so many people around, even if it was only his sister, his best friend from high school, and their respective kids. 

But he dug his arm further into the bag in order to retrieve something cold-- _very_ cold. And wet. He pulled out a sweating half-pint of vanilla flavor Callie Opeee’s ice cream--Calliope’s branch of Jane’s brand.

“A la mode,” Dirk replied with one of his rare, teeth showing smiles. Before he could even say, _thank you so much, _Roxy grinned, clearly proud of herself, and brought Dirk in for another hug.__

“Thank God you didn’t get the full pint,” Dirk remarked into her shoulder. “Then I’d be fat, what with all you just brought me.” 

“Ah, and that wouldn’t be such a bad thing, would it?” Roxy said with a laugh as she pulled out of the hug and tapped lightly on her brother’s flat stomach. It wasn’t always that way. When Jake first got Dirk his dress clothes, they used to fit a lot better. They were rather loose on him now. “I can put these away for you, unless you want one of them now.” 

Dirk gingerly reached into the box for a Pastie, then let Rox take them all to the freezer in the next room. 

As Jake got up to retrieve his own present, he remarked, “Not sure if I can follow this one up, but I certainly hope you like it anyway,” he said, as he took the Duane Reade bag off of his own wrapped gift. 

“Oh, cut the crap, Jake,” Dirk said--then checked to see if either of the children heard him. The both of them were totally mesmerized with their toys on a spot on the floor, apparently having heard a thing. “Neither of you really had to bring me anything. Coming here is enough, really. Especially since I don’t have anything for you, or Roxy to unwrap today.” 

“Oh please. You replaced the batteries on all of our phones just last week, no charge. It’s more than enough of a gift,” Jake said. He then changed the subject. “So, tell me--how’s everything going right now?” 

“Good,” Dirk responded. He always got this same question from Jake every time he visited. And Dirk never really had much of an interesting answer to give him. Things didn’t really change much since the last time he’d come over for Thanksgiving. “I guess I’ve been focusing on the business, mostly. It’s definitely growing, which is good,” Dirk said tritely. 

Jake laughed. “I hope you do manage to have fun once in a while too,” he said.

“I’m following a couple new subreddits that have been interesting,” he said, and admittedly, didn’t quite like the taste it left in his mouth. Jake obviously nodded and smiled, but Dirk was quick to ask, “So--how have things been in your house?”

“Well, obviously things have been tough since Jade’s mom passed. Finding someone to look after her has pretty much been our toughest thing,” he said. “But besides that, Jade took part in her first school science fair! And she got an honorable mention. Which is one step above participation, I know, and she was upset that she didn’t get first or second place. I told her that her model volcano was cool, but--you know kids. She’s getting to be that age where she doesn’t care much what _Dad’s_ opinion is.”

“Heh. Right.”

It was alright listening to Jake talk. Admittedly though, it was tough talking to a guy about new installments to reddit.com in exchange for stories about his kid growing up. It made him upset, because it was undeniable that Dirk and Jake barely lived the same 27 year old life. 

Luckily, Roxy quickly returned to the room, allowing Dirk to think about something else. Before she even sat down, she eyed and pointed to the present in Jake’s lap and asked him, “Jake, what you got?”

Jake handed his gift to Dirk. Dirk unwrapped it, and immediately recognized it as a new motherboard he’d mentioned to Jake that he needed for one of his aging laptops. He thanked Jake for it as well. Jake handed him another wrapped up present. Dirk raised his eyebrows. 

“This one’s from Jade,” he informed. 

Dirk tried to hide his confusion the best he could. He never really understood the whole concept of parents buying their children gifts to give to _other people_ \--especially when the child is six, with no job or income, and currently engrossed in an aggressive game of “I’m not touching you” at the opposite end of the room with a deeply aggravated Rose. 

Dirk unwrapped it anyways though, and thanked Jake for a set of screwdrivers with “World’s Best Uncle” printed on them. From the kitchen table, Jade herself seemed utterly unaware of the fact she’d given someone a gift at all.

“I know it seems weird. Since, y’know, she’s not _actually_ your niece by blood or anything,” Jake said bashfully. “But we picked it out because, you’re basically like family to us. And also because there was nothing in the store that said ‘best godfather’. Anything that we thought you’d like, anyway.”

Dirk smiled. He appreciated the gift, he really did. And he could tell just by looking at it that it wasn’t the worst set of screwdrivers you could buy out of a common store. But the thing was, he didn’t really feel like family. And by that, he meant that since everybody’s lives started changing, he was somewhat less a part of things than he was before. But he didn’t know how to really put that into words, so he let the feeling sit in his stomach as it was after smiling and accepting the gift.

A loud whine, followed by some shouting and crying was heard from the other side of the room, and all three heads turned towards the kitchen table.

It almost startled Dirk. Not just because he was a person who was highly accustomed to quiet, but also because it was certainly something he hadn’t heard in a long time. At least not in person.

A thunderstorm of feet brought the two girls came over to the couch. “What happened?” Jake asked, immediately dropping his conversation with Dirk.

Jade was holding the body of her tractor in one hand, and one of its front wheels in the other. Her face was unceremoniously wet and she was sobbing. Jake took the pieces from her, and tried immediately to fit the wheel back on--but Dirk noticed that it was the plastic that was broken, and that no amount of reattachment was going to keep it on. 

“She br-roke my tractor…” Jade whined, pointing to Rose.

“No I didn’t!” Rose, following closely behind, looked somewhat panicked. She was playing with it and the wheel came off!”

“I didn’t break it!!” Jade cried, sobbing even more.

“Yes, she did!” Rose exclaimed angrily, “Mom, you saw it, Jade was playing with it and she rode it too hard on the floor and it came off!”

“I did not see that happen, Rose.”

“I didn’t do anything!”

“I didn’t say you did, honey.”

“Daddy, can you fix it?” Jade asked pleadingly.

Jake once again, tried to shove the wheel back on, to no avail. “We might be able to,” he replied as an empty response. 

“She’s a stupid liar.”

“I’m not stupid!!” Jade screeched. She slapped her tiny hand into Rose’s side, and as soon as she was touched, Rose retaliated with a hard slap on the arm.

Jade screamed, Jake and Roxy were both up in a flash, pulling each of their children apart. 

“Jade, we _do not_ hit,” Jake said sternly.

“She hit me first, you saw her!”

Roxy scolded, “It doesn’t matter! She’s little, and you know better. What’s wrong with you? Listen here, your Mom and I are gonna talk about this when we get home you know that?”

“Why?”

Jade was sobbing into Jake’s dress shirt next to Dirk on the couch. Dirk remained silent throughout the whole affair. He’d quickly lost his place in the entire conversation, and sat there, motionless on the couch, all he could do was watch the whole thing unfold in _his own apartment_ , saying nothing. Really only further proving his point from earlier on. 

Needing to be consoled, Jade spent the rest of the night on Jake’s lap. Roxy eventually sat back down as well, and Rose retreated to a corner to play on her phone by herself. Dirk knew they felt bad leaving. And he was glad that they didn’t, supposedly. But hell, was it awkward talking to roxy after he’d watched her shout herself hoarse, or Jake while he had a child clinging to his shirt.

* * *

By nine o’clock, Jade was falling asleep. 

Jake whispered embarrassedly, “I think it’s time we go.” He lightly shook her, rousing her, and letting her stand on her own, rubbing her eyes while he stood up to fetch his coat off the rack by the door.

Dirk obviously didn’t think of nine PM in the same way that Jake did. To him, it was practically lunchtime. But Dirk acknowledged this, and reluctantly stood up to show Jake to the door. 

“It was really nice, getting to see you again,” Jake said to Dirk by the door. “Maybe we can get together for New Year’s--or Easter, like we did last year?” he suggested hopefully.

“Yeah, man. That’d be great,” Dirk replied. He hoped that Jake couldn’t tell that his heart wasn’t in it. The two of them were notorious for making plans, but not being able to actually go through with them because one thing or another came up. 

Jake grinned, and the two of them exchanged another side hug, at the hip that Jade wasn’t perched on. “I’ll see you next Tuesday, Roxy,” Jake called to her as he finally left Dirk’s apartment. 

The soft background music from whatever game Rose was playing in her headphones was audible in the now very quiet room. Roxy was sitting on the couch, answering a quick text message when Dirk sat back down next to her. 

“Is it your bedtime too?” Dirk asked with a half-dry laugh as he did.

His sister snorted. “No, it’s not.” She added, “I can stay as long as you want me to. This one’s acting like a teenager already--doesn’t sleep anyways,” Roxy said, looking over the back of the couch to Rose, who wasn’t even remotely aware that she was being referred to. 

“Hope she doesn’t get it from me,” Dirk replied. “Wouldn’t want her to have my sleep schedule.”

“I hope not either,” Roxy said with a laugh. She paused before saying, “Look--I’m really sorry that this whole thing between the two of them even happened, I know you’re not really comfy with kids, and Jake and I should’ve thought this through better--”

“--Roxy, it’s really fine. It’s not your fault, don’t be sorry,” Dirk assured her quietly. “You’re a great mom,” he added.

Roxy let out an exasperated sigh. “Maybe. You’re a great brother,” she said, clapping him briskly on the shoulder, “and a great uncle too.”

Dirk scoffed, “You were doing good until the second part,” he said through a dry laugh. 

Roxy picked up the tool set that was still lying amongst all the crinkled wrapping paper on the coffee table. “Somebody says otherwise…” she said, smiling in a way that Dirk knew was meant for him to smile too. “Says it right here. World’s. Greatest. Uncle.” 

Dirk smiled tacitly. Roxy could probably tell that it was one of the half-assed kinds. Her face softened. “You weren’t serious, were you?”

He shrugged weakly. “I dunno. I’m just—y’know, not _really_ a part of their lives or anything,” he said. He couldn’t stop clenching and unclenching his hands, as if he was too awkward to really know what to do with them. “And don’t get me wrong. I’m happy living here by myself, but like—it’s stupid, that I kind of just--” He sighed. “I don’t know. ”

“It’s okay,” Roxy placated gently. “What’s stupid? You’re not stupid.”

“No. What’s stupid is that—I’m not a part of your guys’ lives anymore. I mean, I am, but at the same time, I’m not,” he said. He felt dumb hearing it come out of his mouth. By that point, he wasn’t even looking at Roxy in the face anymore, just down at the matted rug that he hadn’t vacuumed in at least four months. “I don’t want to be a dick, because I’m glad the two of you came. But you have your wife, and your kid. And so does Jake. You guys are both on the same wheel and it’s turning,” he said. “And I used to be on it, but now I’m not and it’s probably because I’ve fallen off of it altogether,” he said, feeling stupid because he probably hadn’t made any fucking sense.

Roxy looked at him sadly. He hated that. She said, “You can get back on,” she replied quietly, laying a hand on his knee. “Don’t worry. You’ve got just as much of a place in our family as anybody else does. Doesn’t matter where you are, if you’re out there or in here for the rest of your life—we don’t give a shit. Here, from now on, I’ll make sure to FaceTime you more, and I’ll get Jake to do it too.”

Dirk didn’t really like giving Roxy the impression that he needed special treatment just because he happened be feeling kinda garbage at Christmas. But to be honest, more time to talk to her and Jake, the only two people he really ever got to see on something resembling a regular schedule (aka, Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas), wasn’t something he was about to turn down. 

He knew that Roxy liked making people feel better, and that he needed to let her know by giving her the validation that she’d done a good job. So he flashed her a smile, and let her take him in for another hug, and hold him in it for longer than he usually allowed her to. 

Her face disintegrated a bit when she finally let him go. “Jane’s been texting me like crazy for the last forty minutes, asking when I’m gonna bring our daughter home,” she said sheepishly. “So I’m gonna have to go pretty soon.”

“That’s fine,” he said immediately. He knew he couldn’t let her pander to him forever. “Yeah, I understand,” he said, standing up to show her to the door. 

She put on her coat and grabbed her purse, then made her way over to her to Rose, who was still sitting in the exact same chair she was when Jake left—still engrossed in her video game.

“Rose, it’s time to go,” she said briskly. “Put away your phone, and get—” 

“—Wait just _literally_ one second, I’m almost done, hold on,” Rose urged before her mother could even finish her plea. She didn’t look up from the screen, and Roxy waited impatiently.

“Rose, we’re leaving. Come on.”

She looked up from her game for a hot second, eyes flirting between her mother and the screen as she fought to maintain control over whatever she was playing. “Could we just please stay until the end of this round or could you go heat up the car?”

Roxy looked irritated, but her face tensed up when she looked to Dirk about the suggestion. Dirk could tell she was apprehensive already about leaving Rose up there alone with him. Dirk gave her a nod of approval.

“Alright.” You can stay up here but in ten minutes, I will be back up here and you better have your coat on, ready to go,” she insisted. She dug through her purse. “And while you’re at it—you still need to give Uncle Dirk your Christmas present,” she said, taking out a small wrapped box and placing it on the chair beside Rose. Rose did not even flinch. 

Roxy zipped up her purse, slung it over her shoulder, and left the apartment, exchanging one last look with Dirk as she did. “I’ll be back,” she said, and Dirk honestly couldn’t tell if it was meant as a warning to Rose or an assurance to him. 

Once the door closed, he and Rose were the only two people left in the apartment. Rose did nothing to acknowledge it—just sat with her earbuds, not moving from the position she was in. The gift beside her on the chair remained exactly where it was. Dirk didn’t want to say anything about it. 

It was incredibly awkward. Like, Dirk felt weird going back to doing whatever he normally did when no one was home, which was almost always. But still, there was no such thing as interacting with her either, since she was as good for conversation right now as a puppet. 

He felt the need to do something besides sit on the couch and wait for Roxy to come back. His hands were antsy, as per his usual. He noticed Jade’s truck, forgotten on the the coffee table. He picked up, and examined it. 

The plastic was the problem, he thought to himself. That was the part that was broken. To pass the time, and since he doubted that Jake would be coming back for it, he rooted around in the World’s Best Uncle screwdriver set for the right size. Then he took the entire front bumper off. Rose couldn’t care less about what he was doing. 

It exposed the part where the plastic was broken off. He took the truck and the screwdriver he was using over to his work desk, which was in the same room, in an alcove by the window. Among the many things in his messy desk drawer, he located his tubes of J.B Weld and set to work gluing the wheel back on. 

An agitated scoff was heard from behind him. Dirk turned around, and saw that Rose had laid down her phone, and was now pulling her headphones out of her ears. It was clear that she’d lost her game. The two of them awkwardly caught each other’s glances for a second. She picked up her phone again, presumably to start again. 

“Don’t start another game,” Dirk said. His voice was low, even though he meant for it to be louder. 

“What?” Rose asked.

Dirk hated having to repeat himself. He thought of how stupid it was to be nervous speaking up in front of an eleven year old. “I said, don’t start another game, because then you won’t finish it before Roxy gets back, and she’ll be mad,” he repeated. 

Rose obeyed, closing her phone for good. She picked up the gift off the chair, stood up, and walked over to where Dirk was sitting at his desk. “This is for you,” she said simply.

“Should I open it now?” Dirk asked.

“Yeah.”

Dirk took the wrapping paper off and tossed it onto the floor. It was a little box, which he opened. Inside was a purple octopus, crocheted out of yarn, and hanging from a loop. Some of the loops were out of place, which prompted Dirk to ask, “Did you make this yourself?” as he turned it over. It was small in his hands.

“Yeah,” she said nonchalantly, “That tool set, Jake bought that so Jade could give it to you. This, I handmade. Hope you like it anyway, though,” she said.

“I’m very appreciative of handmade gifts,” Dirk said as he continued to look at it. “It’s a really cool octopus.”

“It’s a squid,” she corrected. “Six legs, not eight.”

Dirk counted quickly. She was right. “My bad,” he said. “Squid. It’s very impressive for an eleven year old.”

“Really?” Rose said. When Dirk looked up, she was beaming. “Well--are you gonna put it on the tree, then?”

“Am I gonna what?”

“Put it on the tree, then,” she repeated herself impatiently. “It’s a Christmas ornament. It goes on the tree. I know you don’t leave the house much but you must know that’s what you do with ornaments,” she said. 

What a savage little girl. Dirk replied, “I have a working internet connection, so yes I did know that. But no, I can’t put it on my tree,” he replied simply.

Rose’s face fell. “Why not?”

“Well, your _squid_ \--” he said, correcting himself-- “is made of yarn, and my tree’s made of metal. Assuming you used synthetic material to make this, it’ll melt pretty quickly if I turn the lights on the tree on. Then you nor I would be very happy about that,” he said pragmatically.

“Your tree is _what_ …” Rose said, examining the tree behind her, which was indeed, composed of scrap cut from junk hardware that had come to pass through Dirk’s workshop. “Did you make this?” she asked, turning to him incredulously.

“Yeah,” he replied. “Too much to go out and get a real one--so I just made do with what I had.”

She couldn’t keep her eyes off of it. Dirk supposed it was a weird looking thing for anyone who hadn’t ever been to his apartment, or had never seen a metal tree before. 

“You said it turns on?” Rose asked.

“Wha?” Dirk had already returned his attention to Jade’s truck. “Oh yeah. It has lights too.”

Dirk tripped over his own feet getting out of his desk bench, then squatted down to plug the tree into the wall outlet. Immediately, the tree burst with yellow, tiny fairy lights.

“Don’t touch that metal--it gets hot quicker than you think,” he warned as he sat back at the desk again. 

“This is so cool,” she said, her face illuminated by what was pretty much the only light source in the room, besides Dirk’s desk lamp and shitty overhead fluorescents. “Wait--are these _birds_?!”

Upon closer examination, each little light on the tree actually formed the beak of a bird, with a sheet of metal wrapped around and delicately cut into the shape of wings.

“Yeah,” Dirk said from his desk as he picked up the front bumper of the truck and lined it up with the rest of the body. “I had some extra scrap metal lying around.”

Rose was still standing there, awestruck. “Are you some kind of technical genius, or something?” she asked.

Brow cinched, Dirk looked up from his work. “No,” he said matter of factly. “I went to school for engineering. Changing the battery on your phone wasn’t a big deal. Neither were the birds. You could probably make some of the birds, if I told you how to do it.”

Rose then asked, “So you could teach me how to make a bird?”

Dirk abruptly paused his work. “You actually want to learn how?”

“Yes,” she said. “I know you’re fixing Jade’s car. So if you don’t want to, that’s okay.”

She looked unequivocally serious. “I have to put this part back on,” he said, referring to the bumper. “Before I do anything else...I’d suggest you consider next time before breaking her toys.”

He could feel Rose’s eyes grow wide. Her voice grew defensive. “What makes you think I—”

“—Because these wheels wouldn’t just don’t fall off by themselves,” he said with his brow low. 

He looked up at Rose, and she lowered her head in shame. “She was driving it all over me when you guys weren’t looking. She was getting it stuck in my hair and everything. And she does nothing, literally _nothing_ that isn’t meant to annoy me or keep me from doing something. And she gets away with doing it, every time because ‘she’s little’...”

“Believe me, I feel for you, but that’s still not a good reason to break what Jake bought her,” Dirk said as he picked up the screwdriver once again. “Roxy’s favorite hobby when we were kids was annoying me and touching all the stuff on my side of the room. Doesn’t give me a right to take her things,” he said while screwing the front bumper back onto the truck. “And when I did, I got in trouble. Rightfully so.”

“You used to take Mom’s stuff?” 

“I did. She’s still missing parts of her My Little Pony figurine set. Only to make her upset, though. Because like I said, she liked to mess with things that meant something to me,” he said with a quirk of his eyebrow. “Doesn’t mean I should’ve ever taken it in the first place. Y’understand?”

“Yeah,” she said softly. She then asked tentatively, “Are you gonna tell my mom?”

Dirk didn’t have to think about his answer much. “No,” he said to her. He set the fully assembled car onto the desk, finished. “She doesn’t need to know now that it’s over. Just don’t mess with her things again. And don’t hit her. You can do a lot more damage to her than she ever could to you.”

He looked to Rose after he’d spoken, and she was nodding, although she was looking at her shoes. He hadn’t wanted to make her feel shameful. But he didn’t have much time to think about that, since Roxy bustled back through the door. 

To say the least, she seemed very surprised to even see Dirk and Rose on the same side of the room. After a moment of hesitation, she said, “Rose, are you ready?”

“Yeah, but--”

“But what?”

“We didn’t get to make any birds,” said Rose, in Dirk’s direction.

“What…” Roxy said, exasperated with what she probably thought was just another excuse not to go home. She stalked over to where rose was standing, and looked at the Christmas tree. Her eyes immediately brightened.

“Aw, Dirk, this is so cute!” she beamed. “Oh--and the lights are little birds too. Got it,” she said.

“It’s cool, right Mom?” Rose said. “Uncle Dirk says he won’t put my ornament on the tree but only because it’s too hot and would melt or something.” 

“You gave him his present, good…” Roxy said, looking to Dirk.

He let it dangle between his two fingers to confirm it. “I’ll make sure to hang it up someplace else,” he said. He looked around the room for someplace to put it instead. He clambered out of his desk chair, went over to the hook on the wall where his coat used to go, and hung it there. Rose and Roxy both beamed with pride. 

“I’m glad you liked it, Dirk,” Roxy said, smiling broadly. “Now, your mom _really_ wanted us home like, twenty minutes ago, Rose,” she urged. She looked to Dirk again as she said, “You can come back over here another day, and then Uncle Dirk can teach you how to do whatever thing he was doing.”

His stomach turned over for a moment, but he ultimately nodded in approval. Seeing this, Rose smiled briefly and Roxy pulled her over towards the door. 

“Bye Dirk!” Roxy called from the door. “Keep in touch. Remember, I’m gonna FaceTime you soon.” Rose gave a little wave as well. 

“Okay. Bye,” he said, right as they were closing the door. 

Dirk stood near the front of the apartment for a moment. He felt weird. Jake and Rose had been coming over for Christmas over the course of the last couple years--and yet still none of them had ended like that. 

He thought about Rose as he went to turn the Christmas tree lights off. He was probably going to need to clean up the place sometime soon, especially if he was gonna have her and Roxy over cometime again soon. And of course he was going to have to get Jake to pick up Jade’s tractor.

Maybe come time for New Years’ he’d try to actually take Jake up on his offer to come over. He wasn’t big on New Years’ resolutions or anything, but maybe inviting the four of them over more could be one of them. Plus Roxy’s whole FaceTime thing, he could add that to the list too. Maybe she was right, about it not being too late to get back on the wheel.

**Author's Note:**

> Any and all kudos/comments are greatly appreciated!


End file.
